Life in New Zealand. Cost of living, price comparisons, news, Moving to, emigrating, residency, living and working in, New Zealand. Exposing the good and bad in a Kiwi lifestyle.

GIVEN that New Zealand electricity is supplied at 240 volts, just as in the UK, you'd think it would be an inexpensive matter to get all your newly shipped appliances and electrical goods working when you arrive. It is, but only if you think ahead.

Ordinary living allows us to ignore those essential items that smooth the rough edges of daily routine and make our lives a little more pleasurable.

Yet when packing to emigrate, or for long term stays, it's easy to think those small packages of joy will not be needed, or even useless.

...its goal is to stop British GPs leaving the NHS while the UK is in such a financial mess

IN what amounts to a punitive tax on GPs that have worked in NZ, the National Health Service is preventing British trained doctors from returning to the UK by "putting in place a pretty draconian policy".

SURPRISING top spot in the list of things Brits miss when abroad is a good bed. And at Christmas, with no many of us in NZ as residents or visiting family, it’s not just the Queen’s speech and crisp winter mornings we find lacking...

EACH YEAR, at about Christmas, the cold waters swirling round the bottom of the North Island are momentarily mixed up with warmer currents. Children swim, parents paddle, but beneath the shimmering foam danger lurks. Nigel Charman tells you what to do when jelly turns your day to custard.

NEW ZEALAND has come away with an honorable mention as one of the top places to live when the Zombie apocolypse strikes. Its small population combined with vast tracts of uninhabited land make it ideal for hunkering down while the cities of the rest of the world are overrun by mushy brains.

Basket updated: Sunday, 21 August 2011

You gather round the log burner, pull on another Skivvy and tuck up under a blanket

PEOPLE leave the UK for a better lifestyle elsewhere. They imagine the petty rules, regulations and obligations will be left far behind in a green-less memory, and that any choices they make in the new country will be easy, successful and illuminated by sunshine.

WITH only a month to go before fans pour into New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup, retailers are making sure they make as much profit as they can. Including from Kiwis themselves. Our basket this week shows prices 40% higher in NZ than in the UK.